The Creek (8 page)

“Teddy, get away from that insulation!” his mother ordered.

“Why?” he asked mutinously.

“Because it’s very dangerous. There’s bits of sharp glass in all that pink fuzz.”

He peered down at it as if he didn’t quite believe her.

Penny was trying on a red yarn wig, the remnant of an old costume. She modeled the wig with a little shake of her head.

“You look stupid!” Teddy said.

“What was this from, Mom?” Penny asked, her hair sticking out from underneath the yarn.

“A costume party Dad and I went to before we got married. I was Raggedy Andy and your dad was Raggedy Ann.”

“Raggedy Ann? No way,” Teddy moaned. “Dad wouldn’t dress like a girl!”

“Trust me, your dad made a very cute Raggedy Ann,” Mrs. Carson said wryly.

Penny and Teddy burst out laughing.

“You kids would tell me, you know, if anyone was giving you a hard time, right?” her mother asked abruptly.

Penny thought of the dog skull at the creek. She
couldn’t tell her mother about that because she wasn’t supposed to be down at the creek. And she couldn’t really confess her fears about Caleb because her mother didn’t like them to talk about him. When it came right down to it, there really wasn’t
anything
she could tell her.

Finally Penny said, “Like a strange man asking us to take a ride or something?”

“Exactly,” her mother answered.

There was a moment of silence as Penny looked past her mother at Teddy, who was sitting very still.

“Sure, Mom,” she said, but she wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Bats flying crazily above the Albrights’ house lent a scary cast to the night of the Mockingbird Lane Haunted Trail. The Albrights’ backyard looked downright forbidding in the dark. It was perfect.

Penny, wearing a sheet and a rubber skull mask, was more excited about the haunted trail than her birthday, which was the next day. All the kids would be coming over for her party the next evening—everyone except Zachary, of course—and she was a little worried. She had invited Amy, and she was starting to think that maybe it hadn’t been such a good
idea. How did you go from being someone’s best friend to not existing?

She was stationed with Oren behind the barbecue pit, which bordered on the woods. Her job was to throw fake guts at the kids as they passed. She’d taken a bucket, put cherry Jell-O, rubber snakes and worms, and plastic spiders into it, and mixed it all up.

“It looks pretty real,” Oren said approvingly.

“Hey, I know how we can make it look even cooler,” Mac said. He pulled out his Swiss Army knife and grabbed Penny’s hand, holding it over the bucket and pressing the knife edge against her palm.

“No!” Penny shouted, going white.

Oren shoved Mac away. “Knock it off!” He turned to Penny, who was shaking. “You okay?”

“You’re such a jerk,” Penny snarled at Mac.

Mac rolled his eyes. “Duh, I was just kidding.”

“It’s not funny,” Oren said. “You know she has a thing—”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Mac said, and sauntered off, snickering.

Oren and Penny were looking at each other in disbelief when they heard a voice say “Ow!” Zachary appeared with his arm in a sling.

“Mac just punched me in my bad shoulder,” Zachary whined, eyes watery. He was rubbing his shoulder gingerly with his good arm. The bruise on his cheek was a yellowing purple blotch and his hair was pushed back off his forehead, revealing his stitches.

“Hi, Zachary,” Penny said unenthusiastically.

Mac wandered back, carrying a bag full of rubber snakes and spiders. “We’re not open yet, lame brain.”

Zachary looked at Penny. “I can help,” he offered in a hopeful voice.

“I’m sure,” Mac said derisively.

Penny felt bad. “You could take the money,” she suggested. She looked at the other boys. “We need someone to take the money.”

“No way,” Mac said swiftly.

Oren’s face brightened. “Wait a minute, Zachary.” He walked away from Zachary and waved the other kids to him. “We’ll get a ton more kids to go through the trail if we have Zachary. I mean, we’ll get kids who’ll come just to
see
him!”

“Oren’s right,” Penny agreed. “He’s practically famous since he got beat up by Caleb.”

“Whatever.” Mac shrugged.

The kids walked back to Zachary, who was waiting patiently.

“Sure, Zach. You take the money,” Benji said.

“Don’t even think of stealing any,” Mac growled.

Zachary grinned. “I won’t.”

The first kids Mac brought through were from Wren Circle, and the littlest one was so scared that he burst into tears when Penny threw the guts at him. Penny had to take off her mask and turn on her flashlight to prove that it was just a bucket of cherry Jell-O with a few plastic spiders and rubber snakes, and not real guts. After that, Penny only pelted the older kids.

Toward the end of the night, Penny had to go to the bathroom, but her hands were too gooey for her to go inside, so she snuck into the woods and hid behind a tree. As she crouched there, she heard a rustle, but it was dark under the cover of the trees, so dark that she couldn’t see anything.

“Who’s there?” she called softly. “Is that you, Oren?”

Silence, and then the crunch of a footstep.

“You can’t come back here. I’m going to the bathroom.”

Another crunch, closer this time.

“I mean it, you guys. Don’t be jerks.”

She hastily wiped herself with a few leaves,
dragged up her shorts, and flicked on her flashlight in the direction of the crunch, but nothing was there. Just shadows.

Penny ran back up the slope.

“Can’t you guys leave me alone for five minutes?” she said.

“What are you talking about?” Mac asked.

They were all there: Benji, Mac, Oren, and Teddy.

“I was just going to the bathroom, back there in the woods behind the pit, and I heard one of you guys walking around.”

“It wasn’t us, Penny,” Teddy said, looking perplexed.

“Yeah, we’ve been here the whole time,” Oren chimed in.

“Well, if it wasn’t any of you, then who was it?” Penny asked, getting scared.

“It was probably just a deer or some other animal,” Mac scoffed. “Why are you being such a scaredy-cat, Penny? There’s nothing back there but trees.”

“Yeah, but—”

“C’mon Penny, the kids are coming!” Oren cried, waving for her to duck down, out of sight.

She pulled the bucket close to her on the ground and put her hand into the guts, waiting for the
perfect moment to fling some at the approaching kids. She could hear them coming, not far away, and then she felt it. Something sort of soft and round. She rolled it back and forth in her hand. It was the size of a small Super Ball, but it was softer, mushier. What the heck? She flicked on her flashlight and shone it into the bucket.

Balanced between her thumb and forefinger was a perfect eyeball.

A real one.

It fell from her fingers and the flashlight in her hand shook, the light streaking back and forth, revealing the grisly contents of the bucket, like something right out of a horror movie.

A length of intestine, a glistening pink tongue, and a soft, furry ear, like a small dog’s.

Penny felt the horror race up her spine, and then, as if from a very great distance, as if it was happening to someone else, she felt her lungs freeze up, felt her breath strain to come through the hot rubber mask.

“Pssst!
Penny! Are you asleep back there?” Oren called to her.

But Penny was frozen; she couldn’t move.

“Penny?” Oren whispered, concerned, clicking on his flashlight and pointing the beam at her. “Penny!” he
yelled, running over to her and ripping off her mask.

Penny’s face was white, and she was hyperventilating.

“Oh, man!” Oren yelled, dragging Penny behind him to the deck and the lights, the bucket forgotten. “Get a paper bag! Get a paper bag!”

Benji took off for the house at a tear, and soon Penny was surrounded by all the boys.

“Penny, slow down, breathe,” Oren said, his face strained with worry.

This had happened before.The boys knew the drill. “Slow down,” they all said.

But she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. The harder she tried, the harder it was to get any air in; she opened and closed her mouth like a beached fish.

“Hold on, Penny, here comes Benji,” Oren said, patting her back.

And then blessed relief as the paper bag was opened over her face and her lungs took over; they knew what to do. Benji and the magic paper bag.
My hero,
she thought over and over.

Mr. and Mrs. Albright came running out of the house.

“Penny, honey, are you okay?” Mrs. Albright asked, smoothing the hair back from Penny’s forehead
in a motherly fashion.

Penny nodded her head weakly. She felt dizzy.

“What happened back here?” Mr. Albright demanded furiously, his cheeks red. “Boys?”

Mr. Albright could be a scary guy when he wanted to. He was big and heavy, and got right up into your face, and he had no qualms about shouting at kids, even if they weren’t his.

Benji threw up his arms in confusion. “Penny just started to, you know, wheeze, probably because of it being so hot under the mask and all.”

“Penny,” Mr. Albright asked, clearly suspicious of his son, “is that what happened?’

“Yes, sir,” she squeaked. But Penny knew it wasn’t the mask that had made her stop breathing. It was fear—the tight, clawing sensation of panic.

“Well, then. That’s enough of your haunted trail for one night. You kids get your stuff and go on home. It’s nearly ten thirty, anyway,” he said sternly.

“Sure, Dad,” Benji said obediently. “I’ll be right in.”

The boys circled Penny, who was seated at the picnic table.

Zachary came around the side of the house, carrying the coffee can full of money. “I’ve still got kids waiting to go through,” he said.

“Tell them to go home,” Benji said firmly.

“The bucket,” Penny said, sounding as if she was about to cry.

“What’s going on?” Zachary asked eagerly.

“What about the bucket?” Benji demanded.

“It’s full of guts and—”

“No kidding, Penny, that’s what you put in the bucket!” Mac said sarcastically.

Benji whirled on Mac, brandishing a fist: “Shut up so she can talk.” He turned back to Penny. “What do you mean?”

“Guts,” she said, and then corrected herself. “
Real
guts.”

The boys went over to the barbecue pit and gathered around the bucket. Benji shone his light into it. Mac gestured toward where Penny was sitting. He pointed a finger at his head and twirled it. Crazy.

Benji and Oren nodded. Teddy bit his lip, a worried expression on his face.

“You guys see it?” Penny called.

Mac hoisted the bucket and brought it over to Penny. She jumped up and fell back, knocking over the bucket. The contents spilled out on the well-lit cedar deck Mr. Albright had just built a month before.

It was just Jell-O and toys.

“I saw it!” she said in a shaking voice. “It was there! There was an eye, and an ear. Like from a dog!”

“An ear?” Oren asked doubtfully.

“I saw it! Somebody must have switched it or something! Caleb did it!” she cried wildly.

Zachary looked around uneasily.

Teddy grabbed his sister’s hand. “C’mon Penny, let’s go home. It’s late.”

“But I saw it,”
she said brokenly, starting to cry.

“Go home, Penny,” Benji said in a gentle voice.

Teddy tugged Penny past the curious kids still lined up waiting to go through the trail.

“Hey! Wait up, you guys!” Zachary shouted, catching up to Penny and Teddy.

The three of them walked in uncomfortable silence up the block.

“I gave the money to Mac,” Zachary said, trying to make conversation. He dug around in his pockets and pulled out a mangled-looking piece of bubble gum. “Want a piece?”

“No, thanks,” Penny said glumly. She couldn’t get the image out of her mind—the guts in the bucket, everything so red and slimy.

“I believe you,” Zachary said earnestly.

She stopped in mid stride.

“You do?” she asked, turning to him, taking in his sweaty forehead, the way his jeans were too tight across his belly. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, slightly raising his arm in its sling.

Penny looked down the block at the Albrights’ house, a dejected expression on her face. “I wish the guys did.”

“It’s okay,” Zachary said.

Penny turned to him and said, spontaneously, “Want to come to my birthday party tomorrow night?”

He smiled tremulously.

“Sure,” he said.

S
he could hardly believe it.

There were no pancakes.

Her mother always made her pancakes on her birthday, sometimes blueberry ones, and once even chocolate chip. But this morning, the only thing waiting for her was cold cereal, a barfing baby brother, and a harried-looking mother. There was not a pancake in sight.

Penny was very superstitious about birthdays. Your birthday predicted what the rest of your year would be like. A bad birthday meant a bad year. Which is exactly what had happened last year. She’d accidentally killed a cricket on her birthday and the whole year had been one big disaster. Amy had been mean to her at every opportunity, she’d gotten a little brother instead of a little sister like she’d hoped, and a case of
the chicken pox had prevented her from trying out for Softball. Not to mention that her hamster had run away, and she had a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Cat had eaten it. Twelve had been a bad year. She was fervently hoping thirteen would be better, but the lack of pancakes seemed like a bad omen.

She stepped out the front door, and there was Mrs. Bukvic, wearing a suit and looking around anxiously.

“Buster!” Mrs. Bukvic called out in a syrupy voice. “Come home to Mommy!”

The boys were already hard at work by the time Penny got down to the woods.The construction of the fort was coming along fine. Mac had filched a big strip of scrap carpet, which they were using to cover the plywood floor; Benji had cleverly nailed on steps made out of bits of the two-by-fours; and Oren had built an ingenious hidden cabinet where they stored their tools and comic books.